Winding down the year

Dear Rain--yes, I know you are good for the grass. And normally I like a little rainy weather. But this is getting ridiculous. You were here in force for the whole week leading up to Christmas, and here you are again. Now, I do appreciate the fact that you went away for the holiday, really I do. It's just that I'd like to have some dry weather for more than just three days. Thank you.

I got a real kick out of the last two entries on hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com. I suspect I'll be getting the giggles at every Kenny Loggins song for a long time to come, and the post about moving with the dogs had me laughing 'til I cried. I wish I could write a blog that great, but alas this is what y'all are stuck with. You'll just have to go read hers for the big laughs.

Speaking of laughs, I got a chuckle at work the other day. I was walking down the hall, and a guy came out of a doorway. He politely held the door open for me, then got a rather sheepish look on his face as he realized that my destination, in all likelihood, was not the men's room. Ah, well, I appreciate the manners nonetheless.

Had a very good Christmas. Ralph & I only got each other a few things--mostly books--and spent a nice afternoon & evening with family. I've already tried a couple of the recipes in my new Harry Potter cookbook, and have started a rather complex pair of socks from the pattern book my SIL & BIL gave me. Well, it's not so much complex as time-consuming. It's a pretty easy intarsia--just strips of color--but with 10 bobbins over 81 stitches on size 1 needles, there's a lot of tangling. It took me 35 minutes to do 3 rows this morning. This is going to keep me busy for a long time!

One sad note. I learned on Sunday that my old boss, CD, passed away. He was a fun person & I was sorry to hear the news. I knew he had been ill, but the last time I'd seen him he seemed in good spirits. Such a shame.

We have been invited to two parties for New Year's Eve. I suspect that I'll be going to one & Ralph to the other, even though we accepted the invitation to the party I will be attending first. Funny, we've not been to a NYE party in years, and this year we get two invites.

Not much to say

Very little to talk about, however it's been weeks since I've posted so I figured I'd better say something.

The temp job is going really well. I'm not 100% up to speed yet, however I've learned a lot and don't have to ask nearly so many questions as I did at first. The computer software is very different from what I'm used to using. There are also a lot of little things to remember, like you can't change certain figures if the loan is being processed by one particular location, but it's OK on the other locations, and certain fees have to be lumped together after printing a copy of the HUD statement. I'm catching on, though!

Nearly broke my toe on Saturday. We've got a 15 pound steel weight we use as a doorstop, and SOMEone left it in the middle of the hallway. Slammed my bare foot into it on the way to the bathroom. Cussing ensued. Hurt like the dickens for a long time, although now it's nearly back to normal. Feels more stiff than it does painful.

Yesterday we had to take all the animals in for their second de-worming shot. We were 3/4 of the way to the vet when I realized we'd forgotten to bring the cat! So, we've got to go back this weekend & get him taken care of. Luckily the vet is open on Boxing Day.

Oh, my, Boxing Day--has it really been almost a year since Hoover died? I guess it has. Poor little kitty. I miss him still.

It's a New Job After All

I didn't say anything before, because I didn't want to jinx it, but I started a new temp-to-hire position yesterday. Yay! It's as an escrow assistant, and basically it's all the things I liked best about my old job, albeit with a different computer system. The people there are friendly, too. This is a place I could like. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is a long-term (dare I hope for permanent?) position.



One of the things I did today was fix the sweater of the woman who sits in the desk in front of mine. (OK, it's not *my* desk; but it's where I sit while I'm being trained). Yesterday I noticed she had a ripped thread that was causing a stitch to drop, so today I brought some yarn & tools to repair it. While I did want to do something nice for her, the main reason I did it was because the knitter in me was screaming in torment at the sight of that dropped stitch. The yarn didn't match as well as I'd like, but she was very happy with the repair.

Having some headlight troubles on the Prius, darn it. The headlights go out at random; sometimes just one and sometimes both. It was particularly scary on the O-shaped, unlit off-ramp coming home tonight--yikes!! I'll be driving the Saturn until we can bring the Prius in to be fixed.



I was almost late for work today. I left at 6:45, which one would think would be plenty of time to drive 28 miles & arrive by 8:00 am even with traffic. Unfortunately there was an accident on the freeway, and it took me just over an hour to drive the first 16 miles. Unbelievable! Luckily traffic was pretty clear for the next 10, then backed up again. UGH! However, I did make it to work safely & barely on time.



Today's photos are a few of the ornaments on our tree. I'll try to get a good shot of the whole thing; the one I took tonight didn't come out very well.